TRADUZIONE DI SKYLER PER BEN BARNES ITALIAN FAN SPACE
'Seventh Son'
Il protagonista Ben Barnes adora 'I Favolosi Baker' (esclusiva)
Di Drew Taylor
In "Seventh Son," Ben Barnes interpreta il settimo figlio di un settimo figlio, un apprendista predestinato che compie il suo viaggio insieme a Jeff Bridges, che interpreta il suo maestro, l’ultimo discendente di una dinastia di cavalieri che difendono gli innocenti contro le oscure forze del male (guidate in quest’occasione da una incredibile Julianne Moore nei panni di una inquietante strega). Il Tom di Barnes segue le orme di Luke Skywalker, partendo dall’essere un normalissimo ragazzo di campagna fino a diventare il salvatore della Terra. E Barnes ha già esperienza con questo genere di cose essendo stato protagonista di “Le Cronache di Narnia” (dove fronteggiava nemici molto più benevoli). Quando abbiamo parlato con lui di "Seventh Son," gli abbiamo chiesto come è arrivato a far parte del progetto, come è stato lavorare con Bridges e della sua co-star Alicia Vikander (non vi preoccupate se non sapete chi è, la conoscerete presto), della sua formazione accademica nella letteratura fantasy e del perché “I favolosi Baker” è il suo film preferito di Jeff Bridges.
Moviefone: Come sei stato coinvolto in questo film?
Barnes: Feci un provino. Credo che il cast fosse già quasi completo molto prima che venissi scritturato. Stavo lavorando su altri progetti, poi qualcosa è cambiato e dovuto rivedere i miei programmi ed è stato allora che ne ho sentito parlare. Ho fatto l'audizione su nastro. Mi piace fare la mia prima audizione in casa, quando è possibile, perché è un ambiente più rilassato. Poi, se devo fare il provino in una stanza piena di gente, lo faccio … cosa che è successa in questo caso. Ho dovuto dimostrare una buona alchimia con Alicia il che si è dimostrata una buona tattica.
M. Quale è stata la cosa che ti ha affascinato? Sapevi chi altro era coinvolto nel progetto?
B. Io ero l’ultimo arrivato, così sapevo chi erano tutti gli altri del cast ad eccezione di Djimon. Ma sapevo che i miei partner diretti sarebbero stati Jeff Bridges e Alicia. Jeff Bridges è stato uno dei miei eroi fin dai tempi de “I favolosi Baker” che ho visto quando ero un ragazzo. Adoro il suo carisma. E Alicia è ovviamente molto accattivante; lei è così avvincente e intrigante, un pò strega. Penso che se c’è una persona che sceglierei come mentore quella è Jeff, e Alicia è stato ovviamente un grande interesse romantico. Mi ha reso il lavoro molto più facile.
M. Aspetta. Torniamo indietro “I favolosi Baker” è stato il film che ti ha fatto scoprire il fascino di Jeff Bridges?
B. Sì, io adoro "Il grande Lebowski" e "True Grit" e ho amato "Crazy Heart." Ma i "I favolosi Baker" è il mio preferito. Ha un suo particolare fascino nascosto. È forte. M. Che mi dici di "Starman?"
B. Non l’ho più visto da molto tempo. M. Fatti un favore e guardalo di nuovo B. Lo farò. Ma non credo che sia come “I favolosi Baker” perché quello è semplicemente fantastico. M: Così avevi grandi aspettative su come sarebbe stato lavorare con lui. Sono state soddisfatte?
B. Sì. All’inizio ero confuso perchè lo trovavo piuttosto intimidatorio. I nostri personaggi partono col piede sbagliato e sono diffidenti l’uno con l’altro. E avvertivo che anche lui era un po’ diffidente nei miei confronti. Ma forse era solo la proiezione delle mie aspettative. Poi quando i nostri personaggi si sono avvicinati lui mi ha introdotto nel suo mondo. Mi ha suonato canzoni di Bob Dylan con la sua chitarra. Una volta mi ha detto “Siediti sulla mia sedia Jamin!” Lui mi chiamava Jamin, penso che sia un nomignolo molto carino. Non Benjamin, solo Jamin. Nessuno ti da un nomignolo quando sei adulto. Ma lui lo ha fatto. Aveva questa sedia comodissima e io ho pensato “Ragazzi questa è la sedia più comoda su cui mi sono mai seduto”. E un paio di settimane dopo c’erano due sedie, uguali, l’una vicino all’altra. Lui disse “Te ne ho presa una Jamin”. Abbiamo suonato insieme e scritto testi che abbiamo cantata nelle pause tra le riprese. Lui sa porsi con molta grazia e umorismo ed è davvero affascinante.
M: Bridges ti ha scattato qualche foto?
B. Sono famose ormai! Io ho l’ album di "Seventh Son" sul mio tavolino da caffè a casa. Lui ne ha un paio. È molto bello. M: L’uscita del film ha avuto una pazzesca storia di rinvii nel tempo negli ultimi due anni. Eri preoccupato che non sarebbe mai uscito?
B. No. Non mi aspettavo che ci sarebbe voluto così tanto. Vorresti che ogni prodotto sia consegnato caldo, appena sfornato. È stato a causa di faccende legate alla produzione. L’impresa di effetti speciali si è ritirata e la Legendary si è unita alla Warner Bros che aveva collaborato con successo a progetti come "Inception", "42" e "300" ma poi si sono separate e tutto è passato alla Universal. Non so nulla di quello che è successo ma abbiamo dovuto aspettare che si liberasse uno spazio nella programmazione della Universal. Questo è quello che so per certo. Ma non ha niente a che vedere con il film o con il cast. Non abbiamo fatto nessun cambiamento ne’ rigirato scene o cambiato effetti. Era solo un problema di tempi. M: A proposito di effetti speciali, tu eri nei film di Narnia, ma queste creature sono molto più spaventose. Come è stato lavorarci? B. Sì è stato un pò più impegnativo che bere un tè con un tasso. Si trattava di sfuggire alle grinfie di una tigre siberiana infuriata o di un drago sputa fuoco. Ma quasi niente di tutto questo è accaduto realmente sul set il che rappresentava un’ulteriore sfida dal momento che dovevi ascoltare un assistente di regia che ti gridava “I fantasmi si stanno muovendo intorno a te! Ti stanno trapassando! Sei spaventato a morte!” e tu pensi “Questo non è per niente creativo!” poi in seguito si monta la scena con i fantasmi ed è molto bella. Può essere davvero gratificante.
M: Cosa ti affascina di questi film fantasy? B: Sai, ho studiato letteratura per ragazzi a scuola. In prospettiva, da adulto ero orientato verso film come "Harry Potter" o "The Hobbit" o "Il leone, la strega e l’armadio" quindi mi sentivo in sintonia con questi argomenti prima ancora di iniziare a recitare. M. E ora guardati, intrappolato da un fantasma immaginario! B. E’ il destino! Tutto ti viene contro! M: Il film è basato su una serie di racconti fantasy
B. Sono circa una dozzina di libri. Ne ho letti quattro o cinque, giusto per farmi un’idea di quel mondo. C’era anche una sorta di guida per quei libri e per le creature da combattere. Jeff me ne ha dato una copia all’inizio e disse “Studialo. Studia questo libro, ti insegnerà come sconfiggere questo tipo di creature” Era molto bello. M: Mentre giravate si parlava già di girare una serie? B. Non con me personalmente. Ma penso verso la fine del film certamente sarà venuta fuori la voglia di approfondire le relazioni come quella tra Tom e Alice e sarebbe bello vedere cosa ne verrebbe fuori. M: Non hanno detto: “Farai questo per i prossimi trent’anni?” B. No. Ma mentre giravamo mi è capitato di pensare “Potrei anche andare avanti così …” . Mi piacerebbe prendermi qualche anno e vedere cosa ne verrà fuori.
M: C’è qualche serie di cui ti piacerebbe far parte? B. Penso di aver fatto un bel po’ di cose nel mondo del fantasy. Ma non ho mai fatto un film di fantascienza. Mi piacerebbe girarne uno. Potrebbe essere bello.
***
Questa l'intervista in lingua:
In "Seventh Son," Ben Barnes plays the seventh
son of a seventh son, a mystically indebted apprentice who goes on the road
with Jeff Bridges, who plays a Spook, the last of a
dying breed of knights who defends the innocent from the ghastly forces of
darkness (led, in this case, by an incredibly over-the-top Julianne Moore as a
fearsome witch). Barnes's Tom follows the Luke Skywalker trajectory of starting
off as a slightly above-average farm boy to becoming the savior of the land.
And Barnes has some history with this kind of thing, having starred in the "Chronicles of Narnia" movies (with far more benevolent beasts). When we got to speak to Barnes about "Seventh Son," we asked him about how he came aboard the project, what it was like working with Bridges and his comely costar Alicia Vikander (don't worry – if you don't know who she is, you will), his academic background with fantasy literature and why "The Fabulous Baker Boys" is his favorite Jeff Bridges movie.
Moviefone: How did you initially become involved in the film?
Barnes: I auditioned. I believe that the film was already cast, long before I was involved. I was off working on other projects and then something changed and had to recast and that's when I first heard about it. I auditioned on tape. I like to make my first audition at home, if at all possible, because it's a more relaxed environment. And then if I have to go audition in front of a room full of people, I will... Which I did for this. I had to have a chemistry read with Alicia, which I think was a good ploy.
What was the appeal of this material? Did you know who else was going to be in it?
I was the last piece. So I knew they would all be in it, with the exception of Djimon. But I knew that my scene partners would be Jeff Bridges and Alicia, which I was up for. Jeff Bridges has been one of my heroes since "Fabulous Baker Boys," which I saw when I was a teenager. I loved his charisma. And Alicia is obviously very beguiling; she's so compelling and intriguing and very witch-like. I thought, if there's one person I can see as a mentor, it's Jeff, and Alicia was obviously a great romantic interest. It made my job much easier.
Wait. Rewind. "Fabulous Baker Boys" was what drew you into the Jeff Bridges mystique?
Well, I love "The Big Lebowski" and I love "True Grit" and I love "Crazy Heart." But "Fabulous Baker Boys" is my favorite. He's got such a brooding charm to him. He's so cool.
What about "Starman?"
I haven't seen that in a really long time.
Do yourself a favor, and watch it again.
I will. But it's not going to be "Fabulous Baker Boys" because it's just so fabulous.
So you had all these expectations about how cool he was – did working with him live up to those expectations?
Yes. Initially it was confusing because I found him quite intimidating. Initially, our characters start off on the wrong foot with each other and are mistrustful of each other. And I felt like he was a little mistrustful of me. But maybe that was just my projecting onto his legacy. But as our characters grew closer, he would bring me into his world. He would play me Bob Dylan songs on his guitar. One time he said, "Sit in my chair Jamin." He calls me Jamin, which I think is a cool nickname. Like Benjamin. But just Jamin. Nobody ever gives you a cool nickname when you're an adult. But he did. But he had this lazy chair thing and I thought, Man this is the most comfortable chair ever. And a week or two later, there were two chairs, the same, next to each other. And he said, "I got you one Jamin." So we'd print out lyrics to songs and sing them in between shots and he carries himself with such humor and grace and is so charming.
Did Bridges take any photos of you?
They're famous! I've got the "Seventh Son" book on my coffee table at home. He's put one or two books out. It's pretty cool.
The movie had an insanely protracted release over the past few years. Were you nervous that it would never come out?
No. I didn't expect it to take this long. You want to deliver things hot, fresh out of the oven. It was all political, behind-the-scenes stuff. The effects house that we were using went out of business. And then Legendary partnered with Warner Bros successfully on things like "Inception" and "42" and "300" and they split with them and partnered with Universal. And I don't know anything about that, but if we were moving with them, we had to wait for a slot in Universal's schedule. That's all I really know. But it didn't have anything to do with us. We didn't make any changes or re-edit or redo the effects or reshoot or anything. It was just a matter of timing.
Speaking of effects – you were in the "Narnia" movies, but these creatures are much more fearsome – what was that process like?
Yes, it's a little bit more involved than having tea with badgers. This experience is more about escaping the clutches of an angry Siberian bear or a fire-breathing dragon. But they really don't do almost anything on set anymore, which has it's own challenges since you're just listening to an assistant director yell at you – "The ghosts are moving around you and around you and now it's moving through you. Now you're scared." And you're thinking, This isn't creative. Then they put the ghosts in after the fact and it's pretty cool. It can be really rewarding.
What appeals to you about these fantasy movies?
Well I studied children's literature in school. So from an adult's perspective, I was looking at the "Harry Potter" movies and "The Hobbit" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," so I had an affinity for this kind of material even before I started acting.
And now look at you, being chased by imaginary ghosts!
It's destiny! It all came back around!
This is based on a series of fantasy novels.
There's about a dozen of the books. I read four or five of them, just to have the world be present in my system. There was actually a guidebook to the book, about the creatures and how to defeat them. And Jeff gave me a copy early on and said, "Study this. Study this book. This will teach you how to defeat such creatures." It was pretty cool.
When you made it, were you talking about a franchise?
Not me personally. But I think the ending of the film certainly lends itself to further exploration of the relationship between Tom and Alice and it would be certainly cool to see the Spook he becomes.
They didn't say, "You'll be doing this for the next 30 years?"
No. But while we were filming, it was certainly like, "Well you could go like that..." I'd like to pick it up a few years and see what he's become.
Is there a franchise you'd love to be a part of?
I think I've bitten off more of my fair share of fantasy world stuff. But I've never done a sci-fi. I'd love to be involved in a sci-fi. That would be cool.
And Barnes has some history with this kind of thing, having starred in the "Chronicles of Narnia" movies (with far more benevolent beasts). When we got to speak to Barnes about "Seventh Son," we asked him about how he came aboard the project, what it was like working with Bridges and his comely costar Alicia Vikander (don't worry – if you don't know who she is, you will), his academic background with fantasy literature and why "The Fabulous Baker Boys" is his favorite Jeff Bridges movie.
Moviefone: How did you initially become involved in the film?
Barnes: I auditioned. I believe that the film was already cast, long before I was involved. I was off working on other projects and then something changed and had to recast and that's when I first heard about it. I auditioned on tape. I like to make my first audition at home, if at all possible, because it's a more relaxed environment. And then if I have to go audition in front of a room full of people, I will... Which I did for this. I had to have a chemistry read with Alicia, which I think was a good ploy.
What was the appeal of this material? Did you know who else was going to be in it?
I was the last piece. So I knew they would all be in it, with the exception of Djimon. But I knew that my scene partners would be Jeff Bridges and Alicia, which I was up for. Jeff Bridges has been one of my heroes since "Fabulous Baker Boys," which I saw when I was a teenager. I loved his charisma. And Alicia is obviously very beguiling; she's so compelling and intriguing and very witch-like. I thought, if there's one person I can see as a mentor, it's Jeff, and Alicia was obviously a great romantic interest. It made my job much easier.
Wait. Rewind. "Fabulous Baker Boys" was what drew you into the Jeff Bridges mystique?
Well, I love "The Big Lebowski" and I love "True Grit" and I love "Crazy Heart." But "Fabulous Baker Boys" is my favorite. He's got such a brooding charm to him. He's so cool.
What about "Starman?"
I haven't seen that in a really long time.
Do yourself a favor, and watch it again.
I will. But it's not going to be "Fabulous Baker Boys" because it's just so fabulous.
So you had all these expectations about how cool he was – did working with him live up to those expectations?
Yes. Initially it was confusing because I found him quite intimidating. Initially, our characters start off on the wrong foot with each other and are mistrustful of each other. And I felt like he was a little mistrustful of me. But maybe that was just my projecting onto his legacy. But as our characters grew closer, he would bring me into his world. He would play me Bob Dylan songs on his guitar. One time he said, "Sit in my chair Jamin." He calls me Jamin, which I think is a cool nickname. Like Benjamin. But just Jamin. Nobody ever gives you a cool nickname when you're an adult. But he did. But he had this lazy chair thing and I thought, Man this is the most comfortable chair ever. And a week or two later, there were two chairs, the same, next to each other. And he said, "I got you one Jamin." So we'd print out lyrics to songs and sing them in between shots and he carries himself with such humor and grace and is so charming.
Did Bridges take any photos of you?
They're famous! I've got the "Seventh Son" book on my coffee table at home. He's put one or two books out. It's pretty cool.
The movie had an insanely protracted release over the past few years. Were you nervous that it would never come out?
No. I didn't expect it to take this long. You want to deliver things hot, fresh out of the oven. It was all political, behind-the-scenes stuff. The effects house that we were using went out of business. And then Legendary partnered with Warner Bros successfully on things like "Inception" and "42" and "300" and they split with them and partnered with Universal. And I don't know anything about that, but if we were moving with them, we had to wait for a slot in Universal's schedule. That's all I really know. But it didn't have anything to do with us. We didn't make any changes or re-edit or redo the effects or reshoot or anything. It was just a matter of timing.
Speaking of effects – you were in the "Narnia" movies, but these creatures are much more fearsome – what was that process like?
Yes, it's a little bit more involved than having tea with badgers. This experience is more about escaping the clutches of an angry Siberian bear or a fire-breathing dragon. But they really don't do almost anything on set anymore, which has it's own challenges since you're just listening to an assistant director yell at you – "The ghosts are moving around you and around you and now it's moving through you. Now you're scared." And you're thinking, This isn't creative. Then they put the ghosts in after the fact and it's pretty cool. It can be really rewarding.
What appeals to you about these fantasy movies?
Well I studied children's literature in school. So from an adult's perspective, I was looking at the "Harry Potter" movies and "The Hobbit" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," so I had an affinity for this kind of material even before I started acting.
And now look at you, being chased by imaginary ghosts!
It's destiny! It all came back around!
This is based on a series of fantasy novels.
There's about a dozen of the books. I read four or five of them, just to have the world be present in my system. There was actually a guidebook to the book, about the creatures and how to defeat them. And Jeff gave me a copy early on and said, "Study this. Study this book. This will teach you how to defeat such creatures." It was pretty cool.
When you made it, were you talking about a franchise?
Not me personally. But I think the ending of the film certainly lends itself to further exploration of the relationship between Tom and Alice and it would be certainly cool to see the Spook he becomes.
They didn't say, "You'll be doing this for the next 30 years?"
No. But while we were filming, it was certainly like, "Well you could go like that..." I'd like to pick it up a few years and see what he's become.
Is there a franchise you'd love to be a part of?
I think I've bitten off more of my fair share of fantasy world stuff. But I've never done a sci-fi. I'd love to be involved in a sci-fi. That would be cool.
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